Let me start off my saying Thank You. Without you, I would have never gotten the opportunities that have led me to meet people that I am so close with to this day. Believe it or not, you have taught me a lot. First and foremost, you have taught me how not to treat other people. I spent the first month of my freshman year of college not enjoying every second because I was too disappointed with the living situation that I was placed in. Every day walking into our dorm room to see you sitting at your desk and not even acknowledging me was painful. It made me feel unimportant and that I didn't exist to you. To be fair, I did agree to live with you before any of the drama started. At the time we decided to be roommates at orientation, I knew only a mere two or three things about you: we had the same major at the time, and where you lived. We figured we would be perfect roomies, and I had no doubt in my mind that that would be true. Over the summer leading up to freshman move in day, we talked constantly about endless things: our favorite movies, favorite colors, music, our social lives, and more. The things that you had told me about yourself over the summer told me a completely different story of who you were as opposed to actual college life. In all honesty, I was the girl that had never partied before college thinking that it would make me a better person. You picture how things are going to play out once you get to college, but that is never how it happens. You had told me that you wouldn’t be the type to party. I had plans for us to have movie nights and go shopping together and become really close friends. I had become friends with a lot of people on Facebook before starting school in hopes to have a lot of friends once I got to school. The people that I didn't talk to, or passed off at first, were the people that I ended up being good friends with. The same thing happened to you. I personally believe that the people you end up being friends with at college just happen. You don't really pick and choose the people that you bond with. I remember move in day like it was yesterday. After we moved in, we promptly tried to find the friends we had been talking to all summer and ended up just hanging out with the two girls that lived next door to us. The next few days we had orientation things going on and those were the few days that you actually wanted to be seen with me. I felt that you ditched me with every opportunity that you got, after the initial few days as roommates. I want you to know that really hurt.
The second thing that you taught me was that I didn’t go to college to make friends, I went to get a good education; making friends was just a bonus. The whole making new friends that would last a lifetime was something truly exciting for me. When I got my first C in college, I realized that I wasn’t paying as much attention to my school work as I should have. I watched you do homework and assignments tirelessly everyday, not even missing the crucial study days on the weekend. When I would spend an entire day in bed watching Netflix you would look at me like I was crazy. Every college student does this at least ONCE in their college career; I just happen to do it more often than others. If you want to know the reason behind it, all you had to do was ask, and you’d find out that if I didn’t take these breaks between studying I would literally go out of my mind with stress and overthinking. Lastly, you taught me that partying every night is not okay, but letting yourself go every once in a while is necessary. Like I said before, I was the innocent high school girl that didn’t want to be associated with people who partied, as I thought they were bad influences, and boy was I wrong. Just the idea of being in a room with a bunch of other people lets you get out of you head for a while. I judged you so hard when I was living with you because you did many things I did not agree with. You are your own person however, and needed to find things out yourself. I was too afraid to confront you with the feelings that I had towards you doing that type of stuff. We tried working it out like civil people but ultimately that would not work for us. We were just two completely different people that turned out to not have as much in common as we had first thought. But that is okay. Looking back at it now, if I hadn’t chosen to live with you at orientation I would not have found a few of of my really good friends and suitemates that I lived with last year (and the semester prior). You brought me closer to someone whom I would have never thought to be friends with. Maybe I should have given you another chance. Maybe it would have never worked out in the end. But the takeaway from this whole experience is that I should not judge others based on whom they make themselves out to be, and that not all college roommates will be the best of friends (or even friends in general), which is completely okay. For that I thank you.
